A Cocktail-a-Day #9: Boris Karloff

Today was a busy day. You would think with not having a job I would have all the time in the world, but no, it seems I am busier than before. Maybe it’s the lack of priorities and urgency in my day.

Went to a really informative session hosted by the Calgary Food Committee called CALGARY EATS!. CFC’s vision is to create a sustainable resilient food system for the Calgary region and CALGARY EATS! was a community event enabling Calgarians to “come together, collaborate & start working on a projects that build a sustainable food system”.

The basic premise of the event was to allow Calgarians to put forward food project ideas and get feedback from the larger audience on the next steps needed to realize the dream. People pitched their ideas and then the audience could then choose which project they wanted to learn more about and work on.

My idea was enabling outdoor winter gardening. Sure, everyone grows herbs and shit indoors during winter, but what if you live in a small condo and don’t have the indoor team? Most condos & apartments have balconies that lay fallow for 8 months out of the year. What if you could turn that dead space into a productive piece of “land”?

So for the next few months, I am going to research various ways of outdoor winter farming in a condo. Sure, you can build yourself a “cold frame” or a green house, but all of those require you live in a house with a backyard, a luxury most people don’t have. It will be an interesting challenge.

Anyways, for today’s drink, I went back to my favourite cocktail book of all time: Food & Wine 2009 Cocktail Guide. This drink is the brainchild of Todd Thrasher, who I featured in my first cocktail: Sweet Basil. This man’s a genius. The ingredients didn’t look much to me at first, so to be honest, I had no idea what to expect. Plus, the egg whites in the drink kinda creeped me out. But I am glad I persisted. Here’s the recipe:

3/4 oz. gin

3/4 oz. St-Germain elderflower liqueur

1 oz. fresh lime juice

1 tbs confectioners’ sugar (I just used the same amount of simple syrup)

1 large egg white

Ice

1 oz. chilled club soda

Pinch each of finely grated lime zest and freshly ground pepper for garnish.

In a cocktail shaker, combine the gin, St-Germain, lime juice, sugar (or simple syrup) and egg white. Shake at least 1 min. Add ice and shake again. Strain into an ice-filled Collins glass, stir in the club soda and garnish with lime zest and pepper.

Discussion

Lime juice, gin, elderflower liqueur and egg whites?! What the what? But fear not. This is a DELICIOUS drink, especially if you are a fan of intense tangy, citrusy and sweet drinks. The elderflower adds another delicious burst of aroma and made the drink taste like sugarcane juice you get in Indian roadside stalls.

A note though: the drink has a faint “egg-y” smell, but not too overpowering. I could conveniently turn a blind eye to it. I threw in the lime halves just for presentation and the burst of lime flavour when you smell it. The pepper does nothing. Apart from that, I don’t have much to complain about it this drink.

Shaking the cocktail without the ice is called dry shaking. This allows the egg whites (the albumen) to emulsify without watering down the drink. If you don’t know how to separate the egg whites from the yolk, here’s a list of ways you can.